DepEd urged to explain large increase in budget for voucher program next year

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Saturday asked for clarification from the Department of Education (DepEd) on the huge increase in the budget for its voucher program and sought assurance that cash grants would be distributed to intended beneficiaries.
 
"This voucher program being administered by the Department of Education has ballooned exponentially to a tune of P39.326 billion under the 2023 National Expenditure Program from only P16.534 billion this year," Pimentel said in a statement.
 
"Why did it increase more than double? What is the guarantee that the budget will go to its intended beneficiaries?"
 
Pimentel said that the budget for the voucher program for private senior high schools (SHS Voucher Program) was only P13.692 billion in 2021, P23.93 billion in 2020, and P18.756 billion in 2019.
 
"I am not saying that I am against it or that it is anomalous. But I wanted to be clarified because this is such a huge increase that it should not skip scrutiny. We are entrusted with the job of being the Senate's chief fiscalizer and it will be a huge disservice to the Filipino people if we do not bring this to the attention of the agency involved," the lawmaker said.
 
In the 2021 Commission on the Audit report, Pimentel said that 1,107,083 students had benefited from the SHS voucher program, which is below the DepEd's target of 1,417,613.
 
Pimentel noticed that the target beneficiaries for 2023 will even decrease to 1.132 million from 1.383 million this year.
 
He also asked DepEd to explain the "subscription expense" in its budget amounting to P2.563 billion in 2023, up from P24.68 million in 2022 and P26 million in 2021.
 
Under the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023, DepEd is proposed to receive P709 billion.
 
GMA News Online sought DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa’s comment, but he has yet to respond as of posting time. — Sherylin Untalan/VBL, GMA News